Paladins: Aftermath
by Gold the Fox
Summary: A one shot based off my friend's absolutely amazing stories, Paladins by Cheezel1993. Go check it out, it's awesome.


**Hey there everyone, Gold the Fox here. As you all may know, Paladins by Cheezel1993 is one of my favorite stories on the site. Recently, Mr. Cheezel1993 has made a one shot based off of the Paladins story, named appropriately Paladins: Fallen. So, I got some ideas around that one shot and I asked him about making a one shot about his one shot, and he approved.**

 **So, I HIGHLY encourage you to go and read the original one shot and the main story, Paladins, that it comes from. You really need to read or at least understand those two works of literature to understand this one shot, so please go give them a read. Enjoy!**

The light blue arctic fox laid in his bed, staring at the white ceiling of the room he had been staying in for the time being. He laid there with his hands behind his head, just contemplating things. He didn't intend on falling asleep or getting more rest; he was too eager to go back into Connor's room to look through more of his journal. However, he stayed in his room for the time being due to the multiple hoofsteps he would hear periodically. Gold wondered what else could be written in that journal since it seems Connor has had it since the arrival of the Harrowed. He knew for a fact that nothing top secret or super important would be in it; Connor was too smart to put secrets such as those on paper. The fox closed his eyes and sighed to himself.

"Damn it Connor, why do you have to be so secretive?" Gold said to himself. Gold knew that people had to keep secrets to themselves. It was only human to be secretive, or Mobian in his case. But with how long the Paladins have been together, fighting side by side for survival and for the sake of others, he thought that Connor would've been at least a little bit more open with them. However, this was not the case.

An explosion from far outside the castle interrupted his thoughts. The hoofsteps outside the door stopped as the sound of the explosion reached all their ears. Gold sat up in his bed with a worried look on his face. With the Harrowed lurking about, an explosion was not a good sign. He shot off his bed and swung open his door, surprising a few guards that were gathered in the hallway. The guards' were originally looking down the hallway due to the explosion in the distance, but they now looked at the worried fox that had just burst from his room. The fox paid little attention to this guards and started to sprint down the hallway to find out what the explosion. As he ran, he thought about different possibilities as to what the explosion was. He knew that Glimpse and Connor were out and about in Canterlot. It could have been one of two things: Glimpse making something explode with his Chaos powers or Connor pulling out a grenade. No matter which one it was, the Harrowed had to be involved. He passed by several ponies on his way down the hallways and rooms of the castle they had been staying at.

Eventually, the fox ran into the throne room where he saw none other than Princess Celestia and her faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, talking to each other in the middle of the room. While he was focused on getting out the door and getting to the site of the explosion, he knew they would ask about the explosion, so he stopped and quickly talked to them.

"Yes, I know, there was an explosion somewhere. I need several guards to follow me, things could be ugly," Gold said to the Princess. "And possibly a few medics if they are available." With that, Gold went back to running out of the castle, the guards at the door quickly opening the door when he approached.

The Princess looked at a handful of guards that were standing in the back of the room and nodded at them, silently indicating to them that they should follow the fox. The guards nodded back simultaneously and started to jog toward the exit of the castle. The Princess then turned back to her student.

"Twilight, could you please go to the Canterlot Hospital and lead some of the staff to the explosion. If Gold is asking for medical assistance, I can only fear the worst," the Princess said solemnly.

"I'm on it, Princess," Twilight responded and immediately sprinted toward the castle doors with the Canterlot Hospital set as her destination.

* * *

Gold sprinted through town, getting various looks from the snobby Canterlot citizens. It seemed as if they paid no attention to the explosion, and if they did see the explosion, they must have walked away with their head held high. The fox paid no attention to them as he kept running in search of where the explosion came from. Gold looked in sky for a signal of smoke, but it seemed that the explosion gave off none. This meant he had to think where Glimpse and Connor would be if they were fighting the Harrowed. Knowing Glimpse, he would have led the Harrowed to somewhere open and empty of citizens. Gold quickly looked to his left and spotted a Canterlot store. The store seemed small, but it was one of those stores for tourists to go to. He slowed himself down to enter the store. Quickly pushing the door open, he alarmed the brown earth pony that was at the cash register in the store. He frantically looked around, looking for a map of Canterlot. The cashier looked very confused at the fox as he looked around. Gold walked quickly around and found a turning display that had brochures of Canterlot and quickly took one. He sprinted out of the store, being careful to not knock anything over. The cashier got angry at the fox taking a brochure without paying and started to get out from behind the desk and yell.

"Hey, where do you think you are going? Thief!" he yelled as he ran outside.

By the time the cashier made it out of his store, the fox was long gone. The pony looked around for him and found him running down the street with five castle guards trailing him. He suddenly heard a crinkling under his front hoof. The earth pony picked up the brochure he had stepped on and saw that it was open to the map of Canterlot. The pony huffed to himself and took the ruined brochure back inside.

Back with Gold, he had found a perfect place where Connor and Glimpse could have fought the Harrowed. Combined with the approximate location of the explosion, Gold was sure of their location. He also met with the castle guards Celestia had sent to him. Gold took a left into another street, bumping into a few high-class citizens. The citizens made their distress heard with a few choice curses toward the fox, but he paid no attention. Up ahead, he saw the plaza he had guessed the battle and the explosion took place. Pushing himself to go even faster, he made it to the plaza and found he was right.

"It came from over here! Quickly!" Gold yelled behind him at the guards. "...no..."

The plaza was a total wreck. Black liquid was everywhere on the ground, from big puddles and small splotches. Several Harrowed Hunters were dead and in pieces, with its head cut cleanly off and other with multiple gashes and stab wounds. The most alarming of the enemies was bits and pieces of what appeared to be another Hunter all over the place. It was quite obvious that the explosion, wherever it came from, had completely obliterated the monster. Most of the buildings surrounding the area were fine, with only Harrowed blood stains splattered on some of the walls. The only exception was the library that was nearby. From a distance, the library looked like a hurricane hit the books inside of it, with the addition of Harrowed blood. What truly shook Gold to the core was not the black blood of the Harrowed, but the red blood and the bodies of his two friends.

"I need a perimeter around this plaza, do not let anyone in here unless I say so," Gold said quickly and furiously to the ponies accompanying him. "Please." he added. The guards looked at each other and gave a silent nod. They split up to all the different entrances of the plaza and stood at each, making sure no pony could enter.

With that set up, Gold quickly sprinted to the nearest body, which happened to be Glimpse. Glimpse was laying on his front, with his head turned to the side so that his face wasn't down in the Harrowed blood on the ground. With a heave, Gold turned the hedgehog over onto his back to survey the damage. The hedgehog had multiple skin tears all along his front, a notable one being from his right jawbone to the left side of his forehead. Gold placed his hand on Glimpse's chest and let his Eon flow to find any internal injuries. Gold found that he had multiple broken bones, the most serious being in his chest and ribcage. What as more alarming was that he felt one of Glimpse's lungs had collapsed, a serious problem.

"Dear Eon, Glimpse, how did they do this much to you?" Gold said to himself, since the hedgehog was unconscious. Gold kept his hands on the hedgehog's chest as he prepared to heal him with some of his own Eon. Gold planned on healing the lung and the broken ribs and bones to try to minimize the risk of getting the injuries himself. The medics and the hospital staff could fix up the less dangerous wounds while Gold could heal the major stuff so the hedgehog could live. Eon energy started to swirl around Gold's arms as he inhaled deeply. The chance of Gold hurting himself was pretty high due to the nature of the injury, but he had to do it anyway. The Eon got to his hands and entered Glimpse's body, and Gold exhaled deeply.

Gold could feel the Eon patching up Glimpse's internal injuries. As this was happening, Gold looked around at the gruesome scene around him. A few yards away, he spotted his other comrade, Connor. From where Gold was kneeling near Glimpse, it was quite obvious Connor had it way worse than Glimpse. Gold swore he could see a large hole in the back of Connor. He looked back down at Glimpse and could feel that the healing was done. Gold winced as he anticipated feeling his lung collapse or his bones breaking. However, he felt nothing that strong. Gold stood up from Glimpse's body and took another glance at Connor. Suddenly, Gold felt a strong burning in his chest. Gold gasped and clutched his chest in pain. He knew that this wasn't his lung collapsing, but it was a consequence of healing something serious. The burning made Gold feel weak and almost caused him to stumble forward, but he caught himself.

Still clutching his chest, he stepped around Glimpse and went over to the fallen human. Connor also had multiple, and maybe more, skin wounds like Glimpse had. Gold also assumed he had many more broken bones. The worst injury was that Connor had a gaping hole in his chest, along with both of his lungs being punctured. Gold slowly lowered himself to his knees, right next to the human, and turned Connor onto his back.

Unknown to Gold, the small group of medics and Twilight walked into the plaza. They stopped in their tracks as they saw the fox kneel down next to Connor. They watched the fox put his hand on the human's chest and stay there. The fox then stood up with his head hung, still staring at the human. Twilight noticed Gold had his other hand on his chest, looking like he was in pain. Gold then looked to the left of the human and spotted the blown-off head of the Hunter, namely an Elite, that caused the human's pain. Gold suddenly started to stomp on the head angrily, crushing it with the first stop. Gold did not stop there, stomping on the head until it turned into mush. Even when it was reduced to a black pile of mush, Gold kept stomping on it for a good few seconds. The fox finally stopped and stood there, looking back at the human.

"Excuse me, Twilight Sparkle, should we intervene?" one of the medic ponies asked the mare.

"Please get Glimpse to the hospital," Twilight requested them.

Two of the medics, ready with a stretcher, approached the hedgehog. Both of these medics were unicorns, so they used their combined magic to lift Glimpse onto the stretcher. Gold heard them and turned his head to see. Gold also spotted a few other ponies, plus Twilight. He turned his head back to the human and just stared. Two of the other medics, with another stretcher ready, slowly walked toward the fox and the fallen human. They stepped carefully towards them, trying to see Gold's face. Gold turned his head slightly but quickly toward the two.

"No!" he yelled at them. "I got him." The medics were startled by the fox's sudden outburst, but stepped back a few steps from the fox. Gold squatted down and put his left arm under Connor's back and his right arm under his legs, right under Connor's knees. Gold slowly rose up with Connor in his arms, letting out a grunt as he did. Connor was pretty heavy, being completely dead weight, and not to mention the portions of his body being completely metal. Gold was able to barely lift him to his chest, albeit with a ton of pain from the burning sensation in his chest and Connor's weight. Gold noticed that he was getting some blood on his fur, matting it down, but he didn't really care. He also noticed his shoes having an ample amount of Harrowed blood on them, both from stepping on the blood and from squashing the Elite head.

Gold took a step forward with his friend in his arms, letting out another groan as he did. After the first step, he stopped for a moment to relax before taking a second step. Gold heard more hoofsteps behind him, assuming it was the medics trying to help again.

"I said, leave me-" he said while turning toward the steps. However, this time it was Twilight approaching. Gold stopped himself from yelling and just turned back around, and took one more step. "I can carry him to the hospital, I'm fine," Gold said after taking another step. The burning in his chest wasn't helping him in carrying the human; it was quite obvious he was struggling. Gold looked back down at the human in his arms. Despite the gaping hole in this chest, the human looked peaceful enough. Gold then noticed a significant portion of the weight disappear and felt relieved. Gold saw a purple aura surrounding Connor's robotic arm and figured that's why the weight disappeared. Gold looked slightly behind him again and saw what he expected; Twilight was still standing there with her horn glowing a brilliant purple like Connor's arm was. Gold turned back around and sighed as he closed his eyes. "Thank you," he said, and started to walk towards the hospital. Twilight followed behind him, still helping him with the weight, and the medics carrying Glimpse followed behind her.

* * *

After walking through the city and receiving many different looks from the citizens, mostly of indifference or disgust, the group made it to the hospital. Glimpse was rushed in first into a room while Gold still held onto Connor. Eventually, Gold was offered a stretcher to put Connor on, and this time, he accepted. Gold gingerly put Connor onto the stretcher and watched as he was wheeled into a room, even though there was nothing that they could do for him. He figured Connor would eventually enter into the hospital's morgue. Gold leaned against the wall, sighing to himself. The pain in his chest had been diminished a bit, but he could still feel it there. Gold looked down at himself to see a large portion of his chest fur and belly fur matted down with his friend's blood. It was a chilling feeling to have someone's blood on him, especially it being from his friend.

"There's a shower down the hall if you need to wash up," Twilight said quietly to the fox, she was still in the hospital hallway with him. The fox nodded while still leaning his back on the wall.

"Thank you," Gold responded, getting off the wall, preparing to go wash himself off.

"And I'm sorry about your friend," she added solemnly.

"It's...it's okay. There's nothing that either of us could do," Gold said, starting to walk down the hallway toward the showers.

* * *

Despite the shower being quite refreshing, it wasn't the best experience for Gold. Watching the blood of his friend wash down the drain was just as chilling as having it all over himself. Gold walked out of the room and looked down the hallway. Twilight wasn't there anymore, Gold assumed she had went back to talk with the Princesses about what had happened. Gold leaned against the hospital wall again, and brought his wrist up. The chip that was in his wrist turned on and presented a holographic screen to the fox.

"Call Scott," Gold told the screen. The screen automatically listened to the fox and started to call Scott via the chips they all had in their ears and their wrists. He heard the ringing in his ear as he waited for Scott to pick up. Lo and behold, the voice of the hedgehog answered.

"Hey Gold, what's going on?" Scott asked.

"Nothing good unfortunately," Gold answered with a sigh.

"With how things are, I'm not surprised. What is it this time?" Scott answered.

"Scott...Connor is dead," Gold said solemnly. There was a pause before Scott answered.

"What?" Scott said in disbelief.

"Connor and Glimpse encountered a pack of Hunters here in Canterlot. Glimpse was badly injured, but...Connor didn't make it. There was an Elite with those Hunters and it killed him," Gold explained.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me," Scott cursed.

"I wish I was, Scott. I was able to heal up Glimpse's bad injuries, but...there was no way I could save Connor. By the time I got to them, Connor's heart already stopped and his lungs were punctured. I couldn't do anything without risking my own life," Gold continued.

"I...I thought we could handle them...I thought they could handle them. Those fucking monsters are going to pay," Scott said angrily.

"I know you are angry, so am I, but please don't do anything stupid. If they were able to do this much damage to Glimpse and Connor, I don't want to know what they can do to the rest of us," Gold warned Scott.

"They are getting stronger and better. Fucking hell," Scott said angrily.

"Excuse me?" a new voice greeted Gold. Gold looked to his side to see a pink and white-maned pegasus nurse approach him. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but your friend is stabilized in his room if you would like to see him."

Gold nodded at her and said, "Thank you, I'll be there shortly."

"Well at least Glimpse is alive," Scott said angrily.

"Yeah. Be safe out there," Gold said to Scott, and then hung up the call. Gold walked down the hall to where Glimpse was staying. Before entering, he looked behind himself at the room behind him where he saw the medics take Connor. Gold looked back at Glimpse's door and sighed to himself before entering the room.

 **There you go folks. Now, if you have read the one shot and Paladins, this happens between the first part of the one shot and the second part of that same one shot, if you couldn't tell. I don't know if this is the best I could do, but hey, I like it. And I hope you do too. Again, please go read Cheezel1993's work, the guy is an amazing writer and deserves some praise.**

 **Thank you all for reading, leave a review if you would like, go read Paladins if you haven't already, and as always...**

 **EON OUT!**


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